Lifter Project

Sun, 16 Jun 2002

The lifter is a neat little flying object. It is very simple in its construction
and is powerd by a high voltage source. The basic lifter can look like this:

When the voltage is applied the lifter vill quickly start to hoover. When experimenting
it can be a good idea to strap it with some thin nylon wires to avoid uncontrolled
flight that can shortcircuit the lifter.

There has been much controversity about the inner workings of this device, but now most
agree that it is due to the plasma around the thin wire that generates a thrust from the
ionwind between the wire and the foil.

To understand the forces behind the lifter we need to messure what it is that generates the
thrust. I would like to messure the forces at the foil and the wire separately:

There is much room for experimenting here. The thin metal wire can be replaced by
a plasma emitting device: One isolated wire and a second unisolated wire twisted together. Apply
a 100Khz 1kV AC between these two. Then apply a DC voltage of 30kV between the plasma emitter and the
aluminium foil: